I've been reading through the rules you've got here and while I don't disagree with any of the mechanics per se, I think you've created something just as complex as D&D if not more so, and that didn't seem to be your intent.One of the biggest things I would suggest is making the DM do more work, more calculations. Making XP at the DM's discretion seems like a bad idea to me. For one thing I don't trust DM's to always be fair and even if they are some players just aren't as creative as others. This means that near the end of a game I may be way more powerful than the guy sitting next to me simply because I did cooler stuff but now he can barely be of any use compared to me, how would that make him feel about the game? For another thing, I firmly believe the DM should have a more complex job than the players. Here it seems like the other way around. You should try shifting a lot of the rulings on character dev and play to the DM, make the players pick a few things and based on those the DM can do most of the calculations. This way it's way less work for the players (the people who are new to the game) and way more work for the DM (the person who knows all the rules by heart already).

Also, calculating out-of-combat movement in travel time seems the epitome of unnecessary number crunching. I just image this exchange:DM "All right, so you're traveling from one kingdom to another, that will take...(takes out calculator to figure out how many days/hours)"Player "Do we run into any monsters or people if we take longer?"DM "No, not till you get to the kingdom."Player "Are we going to run out of food and have to worry about getting more?"DM "No."Player "Then I guess we get to the kingdom...why are you still crunching numbers?"

I'll shift the travel time rules to the optional rules page. They could come in handy with fast-paced or highly time-dependent campaigns or quests.

About shifting the weight of counting and rules to the DM: What would you shift? The calculations of saving throws? Something more? Should the DM choose skills or the player? (there's some counting involved in the skills)

Should I remove more "advantages"? Should I add more? Should I shift them to the DM side of the game?